


Beach Boys

by Lanerose



Category: Uta-kata
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-27
Updated: 2007-03-27
Packaged: 2018-06-05 17:45:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6714775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magical boy adventures and the fine art of getting to happily ever after!  Or, a reason why in spite of all the beach scenes, we never once got to see Sei and Kai in bathing suits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beach Boys

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as part of yaoi_challenge for Mushmellow

“WOOHOO, the beach!” Kai threw his arms out in exuberance as he and Sei caught their first glimpse of the waves. Kai grabbed Sei’s wrist and dragged him quickly toward the ocean. The sun-warmed sand gave way easily beneath their feet, squishing between Sei’s toes and flying in his wake as they ran forward, barely dodging around people stretched out on their towels.

“Let’s go swimming, Sei!” Kai looked over his shoulder with a smile. “Come on, it’ll be awesome!”

“But Kai!” Sei pulled back, dragging his heels to slow Kai down. Kai paused and turned back to Sei, his feet dancing impatiently upon the ground beneath him as he jogged in place. Sei dropped his voice to a whisper. “I don’t know how to swim! I joined the soccer team so I wouldn’t have to take phys. ed. – you know that! Why don’t we just go for a walk along the pier? We can get ice cream…”

“Sei! We can get ice cream anywhere!” Kai shook his head vehemently. “You don’t come to the beach just to get ice cream. You have to at least get into the water. I can teach you how to swim.”

“Besides,” Kai added, resuming his pace and tugging Sei along. He rubbed his thumb quickly over the charm tied on Sei’s wrist. “If anything happens, you’ve got this. Between it and me, you’ll be fine!”

Sei glanced at the waves, pounding harshly against the beach. When he spoke, his voice was soft. “Promise?”

Kai caught the sound anyway. He turned, and smiled. “Promise. Now hurry up!”

* * * * * *

“It’s cold.”

Sei frowned. Chilly water rushed up and over their feet, brushing past Sei’s ankles before withdrawing once more as he and Kai stood at the edge of the ocean. Before him, the ocean stretched endlessly out to the horizon. He shivered once, and then jumped as water suddenly splashed him

“Hey!” Sei exclaimed. He looked in the direction from which the water had come, and there stood Kai, his hands resting damply on his hips as he smiled impishly at Sei.

“See?” Kai said, giving Sei the once over before offering him his left hand. “It’s like they say – handsome men can’t be hurt by water.”

Sei glanced at the surface of the water, where the sun reflected his image. A wave washed it away briefly, but as soon as the flow being to ebb once more, it reappeared. True – aside from being a little cold, the water had done nothing. He smiled and laced his hand through Kai’s, heading out deeper into the water.

Kai laughed then, as they left the shallows, and Sei found himself laughing along, happy without quite knowing why.

The water felt warmer as they head farther out, going deeper. Sei found he could breathe easily, even when the water level passed his chest, plunging it into what he had thought were icy depths. The coolness seemed almost refreshing after the heated warmth of the July sun. Sei had just found himself enjoying the ocean for the first time when –

“Oh!”

A gasp slipped out of Sei’s mouth, and then nothing more, as the ocean bottom dropped sharply from beneath his foot and he sank beneath the waves. Water rushed into his mouth, his nose.

He gasped – choked – air, air, but there wasn’t any-!

And then, as though it had been waiting for this moment, a blue glow blossomed around his wrist. His swimming trunks lengthened and widened, extra folds of fabric appearing as a vest created itself around his torso and a headband popped into existence around his forehead. He closed his eyes, opening them only when the magic had stopped.

He could breathe.

Kai was beside him, then, garbed in his usual dark blue apparel. Sei noted for a moment that they almost matched in this djinn’s appearance – at least in terms of color scheme. The thought was quickly washed away as Kai grabbed his hand and began to point around and beneath them.

Fish swam here and there. A crab crawled slowly along the sea floor, headed towards who could guess what. Then at a distance he could sense other people, playing in the water – swimming with friends, having a splash fight, surfing. Not all good, though. Pollution – humans, in their ignorance, throwing things into the ocean that choked it even as it had choked him not so long ago.

Sei pulled back from the vision, reached for the fish, and the roaring of the waves, and the heat along the surface of the ocean. Wanted to look away, to see the parts that didn’t make him wish for air. Pulled back, reached – – and the djinn’s power faded but there still wasn’t air, couldn’t find it couldn’t feel it wherewasithecouldn’tBREATHE - !

And Kai’s arm was around him, pulling him along when at last he felt his head emerge into the sunny heat of that summer afternoon.

“SEI!” Kai shouted as soon as they cleared the surface, and Sei wanted to answer him, really – wished he could have said something, could have told Kai not to worry, that it was all right, that he would be okay –

But the world went dark.

* * * * * *

“- BREATHE, Sei! I know you can do it, please!” Someone was shouting, and there were lips over his own. Sei sat up, sputtering, coughing out the water he had inhaled along the way. A hand was on his back, a hand in his, someone held him – Sei sighed, and leaned back.

“I’m all right,” Sei said, and he could feel Kai – it had to be Kai, who else would it have been? – relaxing behind him as the lifeguard moved away. Sei coughed a bit more before taking a deep breath, inhaling the air as a starving man eats food. As Sei inhaled, he could feel Kai’s sigh rumble through his friend’s body, and wondered that they should even breathe in tandem. Sei summoned a smile for Kai, and asked, “Can we go home now?”

Kai laughed at him, and if the laugh was overly high and somewhat hysterical, Sei pretended not to notice.

* * * * * *

“You scared me.” Kai admitted later on, when they were seated in their spot in the park. Sei eyed the pond of water lilies uneasily, wondering just how deep it was, and did not think to respond until Kai wrapped a hand around his wrist, the wrist without the charm bracelet, and reached a hand to turn Sei’s face towards Kai’s own.

Sei saw Kai perhaps too clearly in that moment, and fumbled for words for a split second before changing his mind and simply closed the gap between them. Their lips met lightly, but what started soft quickly turned into a desperate affirmation of continued existence. Sei couldn’t find the air again, but at the same time couldn’t complain about it as Kai’s tongue danced upon the roof of his mouth.

Sei gasped a little at his daring when the reality finally hit his brain, and pulled back once more. Kai let him go, but kept his hand upon the side of Sei’s face. Sei smiled at Kai then, his purple eyes illuminated in the setting sun.

“Next time,” he said softly, “I’ll treat you to ice cream.”

Kai laughed, and kissed him again.


End file.
